


Going Home

by SiliusRose



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Asexuality, Camping, F/F, F/M, Hitchhiking, Late Night Driving, M/M, Multi, Multi POV, Polyamory, Road Trips, Shenanigans, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-07
Updated: 2016-05-12
Packaged: 2018-06-06 23:01:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6773809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SiliusRose/pseuds/SiliusRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four friends embark on a fun filled road trip across the country.</p><p>feat. runaway hitchhikers, watching the sunrise, self-discovery, drunken college parties, long lost family members, late night driving, truck stops, summer tunes, and the true meaning of friendship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Attention Captain, we have lift off

"Dude, are you done packing yet? We need to be on the road by noon if we're gonna beat the traffic!"

Dave looked down at his small duffel bag which contained about 3 and a half changes of clothing, two bags of ranch doritos, a toothbrush, half a stick of beef jerky, a small hotel bottle of shampoo, and a razor (gotta maintain those sick sideburns bro). Yep, good enough.

"What traffic are you talking about Egbert?" Dave grumbled, getting up from the floor. "We live in Bum-Fuck Nowhere, Washington. We don't gotta give two shits about rush hour."

John snorted, "Rose worked really hard on the itinerary, Dave. We should at least try to follow it."

"I thought the whole reason we were doing this was to be spontaneous or some shit. Like can't a man just go on a road trip with his three best friends and not have all these fucking lists and schedules dictating his every move?" Dave let out a long sigh as he lifted the duffel bag up onto his shoulder. He walked over to his dresser to grab his Olympus E-M10, his pride and joy. He had nearly shit his pants when Mom Lalonde had given him the camera for his eighteenth birthday.

John shrugged and moved out of the door frame to make room for Dave. "I think it's more about us finally getting out of this town. I mean, when was the last time any of us even left this state?"

It had been about five years since Dave had moved to Washington from Texas, and he had never particularly wanted to leave all that much since. He had been thirteen then, a cool little dude secretly pumped to get out of Houston and go live with his half sister and her strange and elusive mother. While their small town was in Bum-Fuck Nowhere with nothing to do he had grown rather fond of it. After all, he had met his two best friends there.

"I don't even know man. Rose and I went to Canada for a week with Mom Lalonde last year on that business trip for..... whatever the fuck she does for a living." Whatever it was, Mom Lalonde made bank. Dave could still remember little Dave's jaw almost hitting the floor from seeing his new house for the first time. He had never lived in a nice house like that before, a place where he could actually relax and not go days without eating.

The two teens made their way down the stairs, entering the strange living room of the Lalonde household. Wizard statues stared them both down with their beady little eyes from both sides. The boys both shivered.

"I've left this state exactly once, and that was just for Nana's funeral, bless her soul." John heaved an over dramatic sigh as he pushed the front door open. "I'm so ready to get out of here, you have no idea. Only three more months till college starts."

"Don't remind me," Dave muttered under his breath. College was probably the last thing on the list of things Dave wanted to think about at any given second.

A loud cheery voice broke his line of thought as they both stepped outside. "What took you slowpokes so long? We've been waiting for hours!"

"You've been out here for fifteen minutes Harley!" He yelled from the porch. A smile broke out on his face when he saw one excited Jade Harley, in her summer best, standing up on top of their (he still can't believe Mom Lalonde bought them a car just for this trip) beat-up white 2006 Toyota Sienna.

To be honest the minivan was kind of a piece of shit when they first got it, whoever the previous owner had been had probably used it to move dead bodies or something because that had been what it had smelt like. Jade, of course, had fallen in love with the car when it had been bestowed upon them and had taken it upon herself to restore it to great minivan glory. And she had actually done a fantastic job. No longer did the shit-mobile smell like formaldehyde, now it just kinda smelt like you would expect a minivan to smell, with a strange dash of fruity.

Rose, who had been marking up a huge map laid out on the car's hood, looked up and eyed Dave's bag as they approached. "Is that your only bag?" She asked flatly.

"Good to see you too, loving sister." He opened up his arms for a loving embrace, he got only a bored stare in response. "Yes, this is my only bag. I'm such a god at packing I was able to contain all of my awesome shit in this very bag. I'll have you know I have the secrets of the universe in this bag, this very bag. This bag right here."

Jade let out a loud giggle as she slid down from the top of the car onto the driveway next to them. "You're not borrowing any of my toothpaste."

"Shit Harley, why do you gotta be like that?"

"You're not using any of mine either dude." John laughed as he bumped fists with Jade. The two playfully pushed and shoved at each other as they made their way towards the back of the car.

"I too will not be giving you any of my toothpaste." Rose smiled slightly as she turned back towards her map.

Dave looked back up towards the house, slightly adjusting his shades. "Isn't mother dearest going to be here for the big send off?"

Rose snorted, "That woman left us a lovely going away note instead. It's more like a small novel actually, when I skimmed through it this morning it looked to be about 40,000 words long. You're welcomed to read it if you like. You'll probably need something to entertain yourself when we drive through Kansas."

"I think I'll pass, thanks."

She shrugged, idly playing with her headband. Rose Lalonde might only be his half sister, but the two of them looked quite similar despite having different mothers. Rose's blonde hair was only a few inches longer than his own, though it was always kept nicely in placed with her bangs falling perfectly on her brow. In contrast Dave's own hair was brushed through twice a day by his own trusty fingers.

"So, where's the shit mobile stopping first? I heard you got quite the trip planned for us."

"I gave you the itinerary weeks ago." Rose sighed as she spread her hands out over her map. "Our first big stop is Yosemite National Park, Jade set up reservations at one of the camps there for tomorrow night months ago. We should get there by noon tomorrow, it's about a fifteen hour drive from here."

"What are we doing tonight? I know you love the shit-mobile as much as I do, but we're not going to sleep in it, are we?" Dave glanced down at the map, he knew he was going to be spending a lot of time in the car, but damn fifteen hours without much of a break was gonna be rough.

"His name is Bec!" Jade bounced up behind them out of nowhere, now with a lime green neck pillow secured around her neck. Dave still couldn't believe she decided to named the stupid car after her dead dog. "And we are planning on sleeping in him tonight, gotta save that money for when we're in the big city."

Dave let out a small groan. "Great, I'll start mourning the death of my neck now. RIP you beautiful bastard, we will all weep for you."

"Dude, it's all part of the grand American road trip experience!" John laughed as he appeared beside Jade. "Our youth and friendship will pull us through."

That got a small snicker out of Rose as she folded up her map and placed it in her small backpack. She had actually been the one to come up with the idea of this trip back in their sophomore year, and she had also done most of the planning with a little bit of help from the others here and there. While she wasn't really showing it, they all knew she was just as, if not more excited than the rest of them.

"Anyway, after Yosemite we're going to make our way to the Grand Canyon. We'll spend a couple hours there and we were planning on staying at one of the hotels in town, so your neck will be safe that night. After that it's on to New Mexico, were we will be visiting Jade's friend Feferi for the night."

Jade made an excited noise at the mention of her longtime pen-pal, the two of them had been looking forward to seeing each other again for a couple years.

"Then from there we will head north towards Missouri to visit Jake, from what Jade's been telling me he is quite excited for our arrival."

Jake English was Jade's cousin who was constantly moving all over the world. He had become some kind of big name explorer over the last couple of years and rumors had it he might even be getting his own show on the Discovery channel. Dave had only ever met him twice when he stopped back home to visit his grandparents.

"We may make a few stops from there on, depending on how were feeling, but after that our only other really big stop is Roxy's in Ohio and then on to New York City. We'll be visiting your friend Terezi while were there." She turned towards Dave and asked, "Did you get all of that?"

"To be honest I stopped listening about halfway through."

"Well," She sighed, "It's about time for us to get on the road."

Jade let out a happy squeal. She grabbed John's arm and pulled him with her towards the back of Bec-..... the shit-mobile. They had already decided who was going to sit where when they started out. Dave was going to get stuck driving for the first day and likely most of the night while Rose worked as the navigator, a title she would likely maintain for most of the trip. Jade, John, and Dave would be rotating as the main drivers for the trip.

Dave threw his precious bag into the back of the car before giving the Lalonde household one last look before he left for the majority of the summer. He had lived there for about five years already and yet he had never really considered it that much of a home. Sure, he had Rose and Mom Lalonde and they were both great, but the big house could just feel so empty sometimes.

"Getting homesick already?" Rose gave him a knowing smirk from the passenger side of the car.

"I'm not quite there yet Lalonde, give it a couple hours." He opened up the driver's door and held out his hand towards the backseat for the keys. Jade gave them up, mumbling something about not hurting her baby.

Once everyone was in the car and had gotten situated Dave grabbed his camera and said, "Okay, obligatory selfie time everybody."

He could see Jade and John getting into ridiculous poses in the back seat through the rear view mirror. Rose let out a sigh but still smiled for the camera.

After the shutter clicked, Dave put the camera down and turned towards Rose. "All right, Chekov, are we ready for launch?"

Rose let a small smile go as she rolled her eyes and nodded. Jade and John both made cheering noises from the backseats.

"All systems are a go then," Dave said. He couldn't help but smile to himself in anticipation as he put the key in the ignition and turned.


	2. Demi Lovato is so punk rock

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for vomit in this chapter

It was roughly three hours into the trip when Jade and John began to whine about being bored. They had already played eye spy for the first hour and a half of the trip, after loudly complaining about Dave choosing to have his newest mix tape be the soundtrack of their trip. Rose couldn't help but smile from behind her book as the two of them tried to come up with new things to do. This was looking like it was going to be a long journey.

"Why don't the two of you try twenty questions? I'm sure that will last the two of you at least another hour." She glanced back at them and smiled when she saw them both sprawled out over the back most seats.

"John always cheats at that one," Jade groaned, but still moved to sit up a little.

"How the hell does he cheat at twenty questions?" Dave asked, glancing up at them through the rear view mirror. He had been surprisingly quiet over the last hour or so. Rose thought he would have been the one who wouldn't be able to shut up.

"Believe me, he manages."

"I do not!" John sat back up and shot a playful glare at Jade. "You're the one who always decides to change the answer when I start getting close."

The two of them continued to go back and forth before finally beginning the game. Rose went back to her book for a while, though she couldn't help but be bothered by how quiet her brother was being.

"David," She began.

Dave immediately let out a loud groan at the name before glancing at her from behind his shades. He broke out his old southern accent and said, "Yes, dear Rosaline?"

She put her book down gracefully on her lap and said, "I cannot help but be concerned by how quiet you are being at the beginning of our grand journey. Whatever could it be that has you so distracted."

Dave motioned towards the road with his free hand. "I'm a little busy driving us on our grand journey, you know? Paying attention to road conditions, properly using my turn signal, being concerned about the actions of other drivers, etc."

"That has never stopped you from chatting all of our ears of before."

"Jesus Rose, can't a guy just enjoy the sound of the motor and his friend's moronic shenanigans without being psychoanalyzed." Dave ran his fingers through his hair. Rose suddenly noticed how long he had been letting it get.

Rose briefly glanced towards the back to make sure Jade and John were too preoccupied to listen in on their conversation. Surely enough the two of them had become completely focused on their game and seemed to become blind to the rest of the world.

"It's about college, isn't it." Rose didn't even phrase it as a question, she had had her suspicions about her brother's feelings on that subject for quite sometime now.

She was actually kind of impressed at how Dave's expression didn't even change.

"Did you ever actually send out any applications? I know mom hasn't tried to push it or anything but I must admit I was expecting to hear you say something about it. It's June, the rest of us have already started dealing with roommate situations."

She was half expecting him not to say anything at all, with the way he was now gripping the steering wheel. He eventually did break his silence and said, "I don't see any point in trying to go to college right now. I'm not really good at anything and there's nothing I even really want to do. You have your books and writing and stuff, Jade's got some kind of engineering or maybe robotic plans, and John's got, what? Biology or something? I don't know. Point is everyone seems to have their shit figured out but me."

"You're good at lots of things Dave," Rose whispered.

"Like what?"

"Photography," Rose supplied, "You're decent with computers, plus aren't you interested in fossils and the like? Archaeology is still a thing people go to school for."

"Look, I just don't really want to talk about it on this trip, okay? This is supposed to be us, having fun and going on an adventure together, not stressing about stupid stuff like school." Dave gave her a look that told her she really should just drop the subject, and she decided she would respect that.

"You are such a cheater!" Jade's laughter filled the car as she shoved her neck pillow into John's smirking face.

This was going to be a long trip indeed.

 

Once they entered Oregon they made a bathroom and gas break at a small gas station in the middle of Bum-Fuck Nowhere, Oregon. While they were there, they all stocked up on snacks and drinks. Dave and John were briefly sidetracked when they saw the nasty, giant pink dinosaur statue outside. John immediately tried to scale it while Dave got out his camera and began to take pictures of him trying to scale it. Long story short they both got chewed out by the tired lone attendant, who went on to glare at Jade and Rose by association for the rest of their short stay there.

They stopped a few more times that day before stopping for dinner that night. Jade had loudly suggested Denny's from the back seat, but Dave seemed to have his heart set on the McDonald's dollar menue.

They didn't end up stopping again until they pulled up to lonely little truck stop just around midnight. The park was only about five more hours away, but they were all tired from their first day on the road. They would have to be on the road again in seven hours if they were going to make it to the camp ground by noon.

"You're all weak," Jade laughed playfully. She talked a big game but Rose could already see her eyes beginning to droop as she pulled her blanket up around her.

"I'm kind of glad were stopping, actually," John murmured sleepily, "I don't know how I feel about Dave driving us around at night with those shades on."

"Don't dis the shades dude." Dave was looking around in the dark to try and figure out how to get his seat to recline. Rose came to his rescue and pushed it back for him.

"Dork," Jade yawned, as she laid herself down in the back seat. John had already hidden himself under a giant pile of blankets across the middle seats. He was probably already sound asleep.

"Does somebody have an alarm set for seven? We should try to be on the road by then so we have plenty of time to explore the park." Rose pushed her own seat back and pulled a light blanket up to her chin.

"Gotcha covered." Dave waved his bright phone at her. "Set for 6:45 am to be exact."

Rose nodded in approval, closing her eyes and silently praying that she would actually get some sleep tonight.

"Sweet dreams everybody," Jade sang dreamily from the backseat.

Rose smiled gently. "You as well, Jade."

 

Rose was awaken at exactly 5:52 by the sound of the car's engine being turned on. She shifted irritably towards the driver seat to see Dave carefully backing the car out of their parking spot.

"What," she asked, "are you doing? I thought we agreed on 6:45?"

He put the car into drive and hummed, "A little quieter please Rose, you'll wake the children."

She tsked and picked her phone up to check for any new messages. She had about 56 texts from her cousin Roxy. They all appeared to have been sent in a drunken stupor though, so she just browsed through them.

"I couldn't sleep at all last night," Dave finally admitted. "Plus I'm hungry as fuck and according to my phone there is a Burger King ten miles from here that opens in five minutes. So, yeah."

Rose made a face at the mention of Burger King. "For breakfast? Really Dave?"

"Hey, they have a perfectly fine breakfast menu. They even have those kick-ass breakfast hash browns John secretly loves. The kids will love it."

While she never really said much about it, Rose was not much of a fan of breakfast food in general, let alone fast food breakfast. Despite her distaste, her stomach soon betrayed her and let out a small growl.

A huge smile broke out on Dave's stupid face. "What was that stomach? Lalonde's hungry for some hash browns? Jimmy's stuck in a well? Well shit, guess I better step on it. As the valiant knight I am, I can't leave my lovely sister with a growly stomach."

"Ugh, will you shut up already? I didn't get nearly enough sleep for this." They both turned around to see John poking his head out of his blanket pile. Glaring up at them and the sunlight that was just beginning to peak over the horizon. He began to feel around for his glasses.

"Ah sick, John's up. Hey John! You want some sweet ass hash browns, don't you bro?"

John gave a muffeled reply and began messing around on his phone, grimacing at the light it gave off.

They pulled up to the Burger King a few minutes after they opened, Jade was jostled awake by Dave hitting the breaks a little too hard in front of the speaker. All three of them ended up getting some kind of breakfast item and when it came to Rose's turn she still was undecided. Nothing on the menu sounded very appetizing to her.

"Alright Mandy, what's it gonna be?" Dave turned towards her with a blank expression.

She let out a sigh and said, "Just get me the chicken sandwich and a coffee, black."

"Coming right up, madam."

Dave relayed her order and about 10 minutes later they were back on the road, digging into their spoils. Rose immediately realized she had made a mistake when she unwrapped her sandwich. This, was the single most greasy piece of fast food she had ever laid eyes on. The smell alone was enough to make her stomach scream.

She was about to just wrap it back up, but then she noticed Dave staring at her with the look of a challenge on his face. God dammit.

Against her better judgement Rose took a big bite of the sandwich. All she could feel was regret. 

 

They stopped only a few more times for gas on their way to the park. They were making very good time thanks to Dave choosing to leave an hour early that morning. Jade had been able to convince Rose to switch seats with her at one stop, pointing out how tired Rose looked. Rose wasn't so much tired as she was sick to her stomach. She could feel the dreaded chicken sandwich having it's way with her insides. All she could do was stare at the window and pray she wouldn't blow chunks all over the back of Jade's seat.

Jade had been able to convince Dave to let her take over as trip DJ for a little bit. Now some kind of summer sounding pop song pulsed throughout the car. Jade, John, and Dave were all screaming along with the lyrics (Dave only for ironic purposes though of course). Their screaming had given her a headache on top of her stomach acting up, perfect.

While the two boys screamed about being 'cool for the summer,' Jade yelled out and pointed at a sign telling them they were heading towards Yosemite National Park. Rose felt her stomach twist and she brought a hand up towards her mouth. Please, dear god not now.

The other three cheered loudly and Jade began to go on and on about how beautiful the landscape was. As much as Rose wished she too could enjoy the great outdoors she was a little too focused on not hurling all over her friends on the second day of their trip. The occasional twist and turns as well as the ups and downs of the road were only making things worse.

She almost cried from joy when they finally neared the campground. She was going to be okay. She was going to get out of this car, get some fresh air, and enjoy the rest of their trip.

Jade let out a loud whoop as she kicked her door open before the car was even parked and bounded outside to stretch her legs. Dave let out an affectionate chuckle as he put the car in park.

As soon as they came to a complete stop Rose unbuckled herself and get out as well. She took a deep breath and walked around on wobbly legs. As soon as she was out of the car she began to feel her stomach settle.

Just a case of car sickness then, nothing to be worried about.

It was while she was thinking this that John snuck up behind her, picked her up, and spun her around wildly. She let out a surprised yelp and began to kick at him, warning him to put her down. John laughed loudly and then finally released her, leaving her dizzy and feeling around for something to balance herself on.

John grabbed a hold of her arm and turned to say something to Dave when all of a sudden Rose felt her stomach churn.

She moved to push John away, but she wasn't quite fast enough.

John let out a surprisingly high pitched yelp that almost covered the flash of Dave's camera as she threw up all over his clean clothes.


	3. Do you think Freud ate hot dogs?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> disclaimer: i have never been to yosemite in my life.

"Move to the left a little bit!"

"What?" Jade yelled back. She could barely hear him over the sound of the waterfall.

Dave cupped his free hand around his mouth. "To the left!"

"Like this?"

"..... Move to the right a little bit."

Jade let out a little groan as she moved back to the right, trying her best to stay patient as Dave set up his shot. The two of them had spent the majority of the afternoon exploring the valley and taking pictures.

After the whole..... mess that happened earlier, Jade had managed to get them all checked in and get most of their campground set up all by herself. Rose had taken some stomach pills and hid herself in the backseat of Bec, meanwhile John had gone off in search of a shower and/or stream to clean himself. Dave had been right behind him, camera still in hand. The two boys had eventually returned to help her set up the tent, but she still ended up doing most of the work.

Once Jade finally got into just the right position Dave snapped a few pictures of her with the waterfall thundering in the background. When he seemed to be done Jade turned around to get a closer look at it.

The valley was probably one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen, and she had spent her early childhood on a tropical island. She didn't really remember a lot about it, seeing as her and her grandpa moved to America shortly after her parents had died when she was six. But from the photographs she had seen, it had really been something.

"Is Egbert going to join us at all today?" Dave asked as he walked up behind her.

Jade brought her phone up to see if she had missed any texts from him yet. Nothing. "I think he feels responsible for the whole fiasco earlier. After he picked poor Rose up and spun her around so much."

Dave's mouth turned upwards a little at the memory.

"Yeah, that was pretty awesome," He said. "I still can't believe I got a picture."

"I still can't believe it even happened." Jade stretched her arms behind her back as she began to walk towards the trail. "Rose should have told us she was getting car sick."

"Yeah, I don't think there's any parallel universe where that would have happened." Dave jogged lightly to catch up to her. There weren't nearly as many people out on the trail today as Jade would have thought. It did kind of look like it was possibly going to rain earlier, but the Wilderness Center had been packed when they had visited it earlier. It was kind of nice that it was mainly just the two of them though.

"So, where do you want to head next?" Jade asked. She dug around in her backpack for the small map they had gotten from one of the rangers.

"Don't they have that famous geyser or whatever here? That would be pretty sweet."

Jade laughed, "Are you talking about Old Faithful? That's in Yellowstone."

"Too bad," Dave hummed. "Would have liked to have see it."

"Maybe we can see it on the way back, it's on our way." She finally got a hold of the map and began to look for all of the different hiking trails throughout the park. The two of them walked in comfortable silence for a ways.

"So," Jade started, "Are you excited to see the Grand Canyon next?"

"I mean, yeah. It'll be cool to get some photos of John pretending to push you guys over the edge. Mom Lalonde stopped there with me and Rose when she was moving me to Washington way back when. I don't remember much about it other than how big it was." Dave brought his arm up to wipe off some of the sweat oh his brow, it was surprisingly hot for 4 pm.

Jade was lost in thought for a little while before speaking up again, "You know, if you want to stop in Houston for a little bit we totally can. It's not like it's that far out of the way, and you haven't been back for, what? 5 years? Don't you want to see your dad again, even a little?"

She regretted even bringing it up almost immediately, she could almost feel Dave tense up beside her. He widened the distance between them slightly, but continued to match her pace.

"Nope, not even a little," He said, "And before you ask I know for a fact Rose isn't interested in the slightest either."

"I'm sorry, I just-" She began.

"No, it's cool." Dave waved her off.

While Jade did understand that Dave and Rose didn't exactly have a good relationship with their dad, she just couldn't wrap her head around the idea of them never wanting to see him again. She only had a few, but fond memories of her own parents. She would have done anything to get to see them again.

An awkward silence filled the air as they headed back towards their camp. Dave occasionally got his camera out to take a couple photos here and there, but otherwise he appeared to be deep in thought. Jade silently hoped that the awkwardness would be broken when they met back up with John and Rose.

 

Unfortunately, when they did finally get back to their campsite, John and Rose were nowhere in sight. It was nearly dinner time and neither Dave or Jade thought it was very likely that the two of them decided to go on a hike this late. Thus the search around the campground began.

"Where the hell could they have gone?" Dave was staring down at his phone, looking for any messages from either of them. "Rose still looked awful when we left and John wasn't looking much better. Why would they leave without even shooting one of us a text?"

"Maybe they were feeling better and decided to take a look around the campground?" Jade suggested. "Anyway, they couldn't have gotten far."

The two of them had been looking for about 20 minutes. They searched their own campsite and after finding no clues had started to fan out. They had already stopped to talk to some friendly neighbor campers, all of whom seemed to have no idea where their missing friends could be.

"You know, I can totally see John just getting up and saying 'fuck it! i'm gonna go get lost in the woods without telling my dearest buddies where i'm fucking off to. fuck'em. i'm going on an adventure in the woods even if it kills me. they'll probably find my body in a week after i somehow accidentally ingest peanuts or something else equally stupid. but fuck it, the great outdoors is calling my name.' But Rose? This isn't like her," Dave rambled on, attempting to fill the silence that still followed the two of them.

"Again, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about," Jade reassured. "We'll probably get back to the campsite in a little bit and they'll already be there."

"Speaking of the campsite, I'm fuckin famished. What's on the menu tonight?"

"I'm pretty sure John had packed some hotdogs in the cooler for tonight, we could get them out and start cooking them. I'm sure they won't mind, seeing as they've decided to go off on their own without us."

The two of them agreed to head back to the camp for the time being to relax and get some food in their bellies. Jade tried to start up idle conversation, to which Dave responded with various rambling that she could hardly follow. It was obvious that he still felt fairly awkward and Jade still felt guilty for bringing up a sore subject. Luckily they both seemed to have silently agreed to leave it be.

Jade got the fire going after getting a hold of some firewood and searching the area of kindling. Dave searched the back of the their van for the cooler John had supposedly brought along. He did end up finding it at the very bottom under all of their bags. He fished the container of hotdogs out of the ice cold water. Jade made a mental note that they would need to pick up some ice before they hit the road again.

The two of them sat side by side in front of the fire, cooking their hotdogs on marshmallow roasting sticks. It was still light outside but their were a few other campers in their area that had fires going as well.

Dave had been chatting Jade's ear off for about 5 minutes about how he could not believe John had forgot to pack ketchup when her thoughts began to drift. She still felt guilty about bringing up a subject she had known Dave was touchy about. He was always quiet about his past and most of the things she knew about it were things she had heard from Rose. She knew that he didn't like talking about it and that he and his father didn't seem to have the best relationship. She never meant to bring up painful memories, but not knowing these things about him made him feel distant to her.

She soon realized that Dave had stopped talking and quickly looked up at him to see if he was waiting for some kind of response from her. All she saw was the reflection of the fire in his shades.

"Dave," She began, "I-"

She was cut off as she felt a hand suddenly grasp her shoulder. She gave off a startled yelp as she dropped her roasting stick into the fire, completely burning her hot dogs beyond salvation. She could feel Dave tense up next to her as well, and she was now fairly sure she knew who their assailant was.

She quickly stood up and turned around, and almost slapped John across the face.

"John! What the hell?" She yelled.

John laughed loudly and held his hands up in surrender. "Sorry! Sorry! I couldn't resist."

"Where were you? And where is Rose? We've been trying to figure out where you guys were for the past hour!" Jade looked around and soon spotted Rose following not too far behind John. She had a bit of a guilty look on her face as she rose up a hand in greeting.

"Sorry about that," John said. "We hung out around camp for a little while until Rose said she was feeling better. We decided to go on a little walk and visit the Welcome Center, we didn't think you guys would be back so soon."

Jade let out a long sigh and glanced up at Rose now that she was standing beside them. She was startled at the look of concern Rose had on her face. She followed Rose's gaze to where Dave was sitting, completely silent.

"Dave?" She knelt down next to him to try to get a better look at his face.

He seemed to have been snapped out of whatever trance he was in by Jade's voice and turned towards her. He looked a little startled but otherwise seemed to be back to normal.

"What's up?" He asked.

Jade tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Are you okay? You were really quiet for someone who just got snuck up on."

Dave snorted. "What? Egbert's dumb little stunt? I totally saw that coming. Could hear his loud footsteps from like a mile away."

Jade looked doubtful but John let out a laugh. "Dude, as if. I totally felt you freak out. He's just trying to act cool, as usual."

"Psh, whatever." Dave moved his still intact hot dogs up to examine them. "Oh by the way, fuck you for forgetting the ketchup. And the buns. And the mustard. What the hell am I supposed to do with this? Just shove it into my mouth as is?"

Rose giggled behind her hand, apparently deciding that Dave was okay. "I'm sure you'll enjoy shoving such a phallic shaped object into your mouth. Hold on just a moment, would you? I need to grab your camera for this. I can add the photos to your file."

Both Dave and John shifted uncomfortably as they stared at the semi-burnt hotdogs. Dave let out a sigh and handed off his roasting stick to Jade and stood up to stretch.

"Man, I'm not hungry anymore. I'm gonna go check out the showers here. Hopefully someone already cleaned up the Lalonde mess that John tracked in there earlier."

Rose made an annoyed sound as he gently pushed past her, heading in the direction of the bathrooms. John plopped down in his abandoned spot next to Jade and began to tell her about what Rose and he had gotten up to while she was gone.

While Jade did try her best to listen, she couldn't stop her eyes from following Dave as he walked away.


End file.
